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Subject Group celebrates diversity in the workplace

Diversity in the workplace has different meanings to different people and this has never been more evident than during the annual “Diversity in the South African workplace” presentation hosted at the Vaal Triangle Campus of the North-West University (NWU Vaal).

Some of the students donning their traditional attire.

During this annual event, the focus is on diversity in the corporate sphere and how the increasing competitive and globalised world economy has changed the face of organizations. According to the co-ordinator of this very successful event - Dr Leon Moolman, the theme of the 2010 presentation mirrored the recent Fifa World Cup and therefore saw the post-graduate students in Industrial Psychology representing the cultures from Uruguay, Spain, France, Germany, South Africa, Ghana and the Netherlands.

Action on the stage

Challenges of diversity

During the presentation the challenge of managing cultural diversity within the workforce were illustrated through several enactments and it became clear that the issues of cultural diversity generate highly charged emotions and those variations in individual perceptions and orientations contribute to the challenge. According to Dr Moolman the understanding and management of diversity has become crucial as managers need to understand the dynamics in diverse teams of employees. Other aspects which also received attention were disability, equity, religion and discrimination.

Staff and students were treated to traditional dishes from around the world.

The Diversity in the Workplace presentation represents an annual event on the campus calendar and is regarded as one of the highlights of the honours programme in Labour Relations. True to the ambience of 2010 the presentation saw a rich cultural culmination inspired by the Soccer World Cup.

Students who participated not only reflected the diversity of the South African workplace by wearing traditional attire and presenting cultural and tradition based behaviour but they also served culturally inspired cuisine.